News of her disappearance gripped the Mangaung Municipality with fear. Olly Mlamleli, expressed how disturbed she was when it was reported that Lechoano was nowhere to be found.

As reported by Times Live, Lechoano’s body was found in the trunk of her car which was parked in the basement lot of the Mangaung Municipality at the Bram Fischer building six days later.

Police revealed that they discovered her corpse bound by the hands and feet. A postmortem report will confirm the cause of death but investigators did reveal that they could not locate any wounds on her body.

The last person to engage with Lechoano, according to police, was a fellow employee, who seemed to have been trying ascertain when she was getting to work, judging by Lechoano’s response which read,

“still busy will be at work soon”

Investigators have been able to pin this interaction between 07:30 and the time she left the office. For now, the employee has not been placed under arrest.

Persons of interest in the cas

Her husband was the one who alerted police of her disappearance. According to OFM News, after Lechoano had not come home, he went looking for her at a local casino as he alleged that she had a gambling problem.

When he could not find her, he went to report her missing at the police station. However, interestingly, he was not able to describe what she was wearing the last time he saw her, which would have been on the morning of her disappearance.

The husband is not considered a person of interest at this time. It appears the focus of her death has been linked with organised crime, according to Times Live.

Organised crime is a possible motive

Monde Stratu, the president of the Institute for Local Government Management, was quoted in the article stating that Lechoano’s death may be an element of organised crime.

“Our most sincere thoughts are with the family and colleagues of Lechoano. Organised crime interests, which have taken hold of so many of our municipalities, are posing a deadly risk to this tier of government,” Stratu stated.

The nature of Lechoano’s death may be explained by th kind of work she did but nothing can be conclusive without the postmortem report which will reveal all about when and how she died.